


The Light Within

by senseiT



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blowjobs, Boss!AU, Coolest Tattoos ever I promise, Crime, Cuddles, Death, Dirty Talk, EXO - Freeform, Feelings, First Time, Fluff, Gangs, Happy Ending, Inappropiate Use of Supowerpowers, Insecurity, Jealousy, M/M, Making Out, More taggs added later, Plot, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Praise Kink, Rough Sex, Slow Burn, Smut, Spanking, Superpowers, Switching, Tattoos, Torture, Violence, bottom!taeyong, bts - Freeform, long story, my tags are in a random order which is weird, powerbottom!taeyong, slow smut, spoilers in tags, top!jaehyun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2019-06-19 13:32:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15510954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senseiT/pseuds/senseiT
Summary: Not only could Jaehyunfeelthe capital letter in Boss, he also went from gay to straight, and to gay again within a timespan of 0.127 seconds.Or: Jaehyun meets the impossibly beautiful leader of the gang NCT, who not only controlls ice, but also appears to have a strange fascination with him for reasons Jaehyun can't quite imagine, but still let him thank every higher power in the universe that they exist.Boss!AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **This is my first time writing and posting a fanfiction, so please go easy on me. Feedback is appreciated, and hate comments are better than no comments, eh? English isn't my first language, and I don't have someone to look over my fanfiction(s?), so don't be surprised if you see mistake of any kind. The tags are somehow in a messed up order, and I don't know if it's supposed to be like this or not.**
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> ****  
> **Story wise I'll give you a short warning about Taeyong, since I kinda made him... uh, very OP? I'm a slut for OP characters though (not the slut-slut way though since I respect the hell outta TY, especially since he became NCTs official leader), sow yeah. And I aplogize if I don't get characters right. You have been warned.**
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> **A quick extra: it's really hard actually, especially this early, but if someone can guess where the title is coming from, they will get a suprise :) Hint: It's not related to K-Pop.**

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* * *

 

 **Jaehyun** had always disliked all the cliché movies. Especially the romantic ones. He could never imagine any plot he has seen play out in reallife. It's not like you sudddenly meet a good looking person with a decent personality in a random café, where you'd usually miss eachother like any other person would. Making eyecontact for a split second and deciding the other person is worth persuading and spending the rest of your entire life with? He can absolutely not relate. In movies it always ends with some dramatic in-the-dawn handholding, black shillouetes against the blazing red sun, or some dramatic looking-away, giving you the impression they just transcended past philosophy into some higher shit, and now you're forced to interpret what they're thinking - nope. But the part when they grow old, when they start to slowly loose all the beauty that attracted the other person in the first place, when they get wrinkles, grey hair and start to adapt unpleasant habits, like chewing weirdly or farting whenever they're hungry - yeah. They don't show reallife. But he supposes that this is what makes a movie, well, a movie. They end on a memorizing, often relatable term and immortalize themselves in your memory because it's so different from the boring life everyone is leading.

So it kinda hurts to admit that he's leading a... very clichè life. Although he's smarter than the average person, good grades and reputation in school, 80% of his time is spent in those typical cubicles you see in, well, fucking movies. And documentaries. About buisness and shit, because that's apparently a thing, but it's probably less chlichè so Jaehyun doesn't dwell on it too long. It's one of those jobs where you stare at numbers and complicated (or not so complicated e-mails, but those are so impolite he wants to mail the person on his private account back and give them an entirely different impolite e-mail) all day, on a screen that belongs to a computer that should have left with the 20th century, in a crammed chair in a crammed office, where you can hear everything your wonderful cubicle neighbours do and say.

That does not only include unnecessary loud typing, but also the squeaky noises from moving in the chair, or something as simple as putting down coffee (let's not forget the sipping sound, and Jaehyun never thought he could find something wrong with how you could sip until now). It's okay to hear it a whole day for 8 hours, it's even ok for another week. But a week and one day is too much and Jaehyun thinks he should go test his blood or somethig, because apparently he's a fucking _superhuman_ , being able to withstand the hell his job is.

Thing is - like every other student after college he never got the job he wanted. All those late night (or morning) hours spent hunched over a textbook, squinting his eyes in the dim lighting of his table lamp, at texts of impossibly tiny writing, his right arm furiously creating bulletpoint after bulletpoint on his paper, all gone to waste. His accomplishments at the end are still there, but when nobody accepts his job application, it's fucking useless. In addition, he actually has no clue on what to do with his later life. Joining the police? Not his cup of tea. An artist? Jaehyun doesn't think he's creative enough. An Idol? In an alternative universe maybe, and now it's too late anyway. But he doesn't want to get thrown out of his small, but homey apartment (he has a part time job, but that barely held him above the waters and Jaehyun wanted to eat something other than instant noodles every evening, even if they are fucking delicious) so he proceeded to apply for jobs he thought would keep him interested and motivated enough to spend the next 40 years doing them. To make it short: he got turned down every single time, except that one shitty application he didn't want to send.

Some answers were more rude than others (he thinks some didn't even bother reading everything he send them), and the part time job he had also went to the graveyard, because the little coffeeshop was closing, all because they build a cheaper; _crappier_ (in his unbiased opinion) one on the other side of the street, and people care more about money than quality.

Maybe it's also because of the name - Coffeedream, he had to admit, or The Dreamies Coffee sounded way better than Coffeeshop 127 (did the owner just come up with a random number because he wasn't creative enough for a name, so numbers had to do?). And it was actually a really nice little café. Not that he'll ever admit it. Naturally he took the only job that was left, and even if it's looking at numbers and letters from 7am to 4pm - he wants to keep his wonderful apartment, thank you very much. Better than being on the streets or crawling towards his parents - and Jaehyun would rather stab his eyes out before asking his parents for any kind of help, especially since he convinced them he was _fine_ and had a _great_ job.

Right now he's walking to that exact apartment (his car broke down some days ago and has been in the repair station since, luckily it's only an one hour walk), and thinks about how clichè the setting of this dark night is. It's cold as fuck, and he numbly watches as snowflakes fight their way through the wind towards the ground. It has been snowing a lot in the past months, and even thought it's in the end of spring, it just won't start getting any warmer.

Quite the opposite actually; the snow and everything that follows with it seem to get stronger with each passing week. It's been a lot in TV or in the newspapers, scientist talking about how the global warming is already stopped and we should start to produce more co2, because apparently we're making to _little_. The world is recovering so fast, it's not gonna burn and suffocate us, but _freeze  
_ us to death - a complete load of bullshit if somebody cared to ask Jaehyun, and he can't really believe that some people trust that shit, or, the ones who talk about it, somehow acquired a doctor or some other fancy title.

But like every other breaking news it died down in around two months, because that's how it goes - if it's interesting, they dig every ounce of information and theories they get until there's nothing left, and the public turns away from them. Or they get bored of the same stuff even before everything can be stretched to its fullest potential. It leaves a sad, open hole that has to be taken care of. Not that Jaehyun would do it. Hell no, he isn't cut out for all that newsshit, preferring to stay low and out of the lions den.

Jaehyun does consider staying on the main road for safety (and vision) reasons , but while he rearranges his scarf from _makes-him-look-good-but-is-cold_ to _makes-him-look-dumb-but-keeps-warm_ , he strays away from the street lights illuminating the side of the road, into the omnious, lurking alleys. Because it will shorten his walk by 10 minutes, and he is totally okay to risk his life by getting 10 more minutes to watch anime and play videogames at home. He still trusts his gut that nothing cliché will happen to him tonight - no kidnapping, no running into drug dealers and _then_ getting kidnapped for whatever reason.

He goes over several imaginary scenarios in his head and decides, if something is going to happen, he will kick ass - he does have the green belt in Taekwondo after all, and even if the last time he actually did it was 2 years ago - it was still the last time he kicked some serious ass, despite it being a big and fat one, harder to miss than to hit, in a shady bar one of his only friends dragged him to. Still, he kicked ass. That fact alone counts.

His steps lightly echo around the heavy greyness around him, and through the light fog he can make out a tall lamp that's - how great - flickering every few seconds, and even if it has a few glorious miliseconds of succeeding in fullfiling its purpose, the lighting is so poor it barely makes any difference. Leaning to a wall next under the lamp is a tall, lanky person that appears to be holding a book, immersed in reading.

At least Jaehyun thinks the person is - but they wouldn't probably be holding a book inches in front of their face to see their sorroundings better. The air around them feels strange, unknwon, but Jaehyun ignores the weird vibe he gets from them, and simply walks by, releasing a breath he didn't know he was Holding. After they weren't in his field of vision anymore, he even starts counting to ten - he's mildly satisfied that he surpassed the time window where the protagonist of a chlichè movie would somehow get his ass kicked in some way after expecting he averted or overcame a Crisis. Another hast exhale.

Through the eerie absence of noise, he hears the distinct sound of a book being snapped shut, and no, Jaehyun definitely doesn't walk a tiny bit faster now. He begins to count to ten again, doesn't even hear footsteps behind him, so he thinks he's gonna be safe and sound. After reaching 9 - and on the bloody 10 -, karma and all the clichè things he absolutely loathes, begin to pay him back for all the time in the past he spent on hating them. His vision decides it's a good time to blurr, - and woah, was that a red elephant with cat paws? - and black ink enters his brain as it falls shut, the white snow on the ground coming closer at an alarming rate.

 

* * *

 

When Jaehyun wakes up, he's on a simple, white bed in a simple, small room. Groggily he opens his eyes, and even though he thinks he should feel exhausted, pained, he only feels a little tired . The man gets the distinct thought he should remember something, but that's a bit hard with his brain seemingly working on the lowest setting. Actions will have to compensate then.

Stretching his muscles a bit, he inspects the room and notes that there isn't much to inspect. The bed is the only piece furniture, the walls and Ground a faded white. There doesn't seem to be any door which is odd and confuses Jaehyun, they have had to put him in here somehow. Brown eyes dart around the room, and his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion after checking the underside of the bed. Nothing. His brain seems to be in a kind of better setting right now, still slow, but better than it was some minutes ago. How is he supposed to escape from wherever this is? And that leads to the question of - what exacly?

The numbness and foginess that were making themselves home in his head finally clear, and everything hits him like a mental truck. The fact that karma decided to be exactly what it is - karma - (he wishes it was that hot redhead from the one anime he watched, but unfortunately it isn't), and kicked his ass in the alley after he thought he was going to make it home safe and sound. He supposes it wasn't really karma who made him black out, rather the mysterious person he passed. But's he's pretty damn sure karma made the person do this, so it fucking counts in his book.

The horrible realization dawns upon him - he just got abducted. He doesn't know or why, but Jaehyun feels like he should go to some hospital or see a doctor as he notices how the cliché act bothers him more than the action itself. He gets pulled out of his thoughts a presence begins to fill he room, and Jaehyun shudders before he wills his body to slowly turn around. The aura that person is executing is demanding and heavy, like a soft, but pressing blanket that was put over him, and he had to blink a few times to see the person in front if him.

 It was probably the person in the alley - you don't get to see people this tall and lanky everyday, and that aura was similar when he was in the alley - but it was a (dare he say) pretty man, with light blonde hair swiped back, large, but cold eyes and delicate facial features. Upon closer inspection the man still has the same book in his right hand, dangling loosely from his fingertips (it should have fallen down by now, does he train the tips of his fingers something?), almost concealed by the heavy black coat that is dripping off him, doing little to lessen his spacedemanding appearance. If Jaehyun is right, it's a book about the korean language, but the guy is already moving.

He takes a step closer to Jaehyun, and suddenly he realizes: he has been taken somewhere without his consent (so basically kidnapped) and this person just appeared out of nowhere, with a stable confidence that made him a threat. So Jaehyun narrows his eyes, leaning into the corner of the room, trying to get some distance between them. Not that it would help much, but the rooms gives little options right now, and Jaehyun is starting to get a little desperate. He refuses to just sit there and accept whatever fate decides to bestow upon him. The guy already stops, probably deciding one silent step would be enough to intimidate him, two would be uncool and ruin the whole badass vibe. "I'm WinWin. The Boss will meet you when he's ready, and will explain why you're here." Not much of a talker, huh.

His korean was accented, not too much though, perfectly understandable for Jaehyun, and he finds himself hesitantly nodding along to the short sentence. After a moment something cold spreads through his veins, because he can literally _feel_ the capital letter in boss, and judging by the freezing smile that is now creeping up on WinWins lips, he doesn't really want to know why he's here. Or who that boss is. Yes, Jaehyun might have bragged about his (exceptional) fighting skills earlier, but even he knows that there's no joking around with this guy. Not even on a verbal level, given by the apatheticness the other man is radiating. That smile is definitely not meant to ease his mind. Jaehyun doesn't want to be killed yet (WinWin looks like he can do so with a fingersnap, at least he has the confidence for it, and appearently dedicates them a special workout), but he really wants to at least live long enough for the ongoing Boku No Hero Academia season to finish.

Then his eyebrow furrow as he realizes he's obedient like a fucking pet, and he could at least try demanding answers or information. Maybe ask for the guys number because yeah, good job Jaehyun, that's the best question to ask in this situation. At leat he got a name - WinWin - that is surely some kind of codename. He will probably even forget it anyway in some months (usually it only takes some hours or a day, but he probably kidnapped him or is at least somehow involved, and that shit is about to last little longer in his memory if he can make it out alive), but he doesn't really think the location he's at or other stuff will really help him here, considering his inability to do anything. What is he even supposed to do with that Information - should it confirm him in going out solo and trying to take out every guy there is? With potential weapons and other fighting skills? Because that's totally sane and absolutely logical?

He's not those desperate people who cry and lash out when they are in a similar situation, because the people who initiate all the kidnapping are not some third rate gangster group who forget to put the safety off their guns when they try robbing a bank, and get taken down singlehandly by an amateur protagonist, but rather a well organized criminal group that get away with terrorism, murder and successful bankrobbing with terryfing ease. So no, he won't trash around and threaten everyone or pull the I-have-family-and-pets card (he supposes mentioning a pet _does_ soften even a hardened criminal), not only because he has some fucking dignity to maintain, but also because they 110% modified the room in a way where he wouldn't be heard in any way, and we're not even talking about the overall location yet. Probably some underwater base in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Sounds about right to him.

Jaehyun is still aware of WinWins lurking presence (how couldn't he) and notices something is off, something moves at the edge of his blurry-from-focused-thinking vision. He doesn't quite know what is it yet, and squints his eyes, because it's definitely coming from WinWin, hasn't been there before. And then he actually has to grip the wall next to him with both hands, gaping like a fish because the air, space, particles, - whatever - around WinWin fucking _shift_ and _move_ like water. It's not so subtle, but apparently hard to detect when somebody only glances over him, not bothering to give him a full once over. It's strongest around the outer part of his body, and ends after soflty ebbing out, like the surface of rippling water.

Jaehyun doesn't have to major in science or something to know that this shit isn't normal. Did they drug him? And as if WinWin decided this wasn't enough information to fuck up his brain with, he turns around, goes straight for the wall, Jaehyun thinks he's about to bump into it for fucks sake, but- _he just disappears in it._ Jaehyun can't proceed all the information yet, but he vaguely finds himself standing up, walking towards the exact spot the guy fucking vanished in - and promptly bumps harshly into a solid surface, force knocking him backwards. And because this is the _greatest_ day ever in his miserable, and, unfortunately, cliché life, he hits his head on the edge of the bed, passing out a second time.

 

* * *

 

When Jaehyun wakes up in his bed again, he finds himself in a far more miserable condition. His head is the worst, a constant beating that seems graspable, but is not, and it's annoying beyond words. When his fingers feel a rough material around his head, he finds it's also bandaged, pushing some bangs to the side. The room somehow dropped drastically in temperature, but at least the bed is warm. He must have been on it some time, but as Jaehyun recalls why he blacked out a second time, he wonders how exactly he moved from the floor to the bed. At least he assumes he was spread out on the floor, knocked out cold. Unless his body magically decided to awaken his slumbering teleportation or levitation skills to pull him up after he hit the Floor. And that, Jaehyun thinks, is a serious talent worth passing onto future generations. A shame he isn't into girls.

The air around him felt much more bearable and breathable without WinWin, despite the stinging of coldness, and he inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to blend his headache out as he watches his visible breath disappear and reappear. It finally feels like a normal room (as normal as it can be at least) again, not like a place where an execution is about to be hold. Or when you were caught doing something utterly stupid in class; Jaehyun can still recall the eyes of every single person in the classroom stripping him bare of his dignity and human pride.

Yeah, those moments were terryfing, and the few times it happened to him didn't necessarily count as his most precious childhood memories. He wanted to crawl into a hole back then, but it is hard to do so when an adult person observes you and the room leaves little space to hide. That actually reminds him of the reason why he ran up to that wall (like any normal person would, of course) and the weird air around WinWin. That sure wasn't some hallucination. Jaehyun was able to create coherent thoughts before that guy appeared, and he doesn't think he was so hot the air around him flimmered. Even if he was - still doesn't explain why he just, just, you know- shimmied his way through the wall like some ghost. "Maybe this is some special effect testing base, and they didn't make it public yet because it's so advanced and would revolutionize the entire film and gaming industry?"

"It's actually his Aura that causes it."  
Jaehyun bolds up as he hears another voice, not WinWins, speak next to him. His eyes dart around until they find a man leaning at the wall to his right, hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket. And holy shit, his eyes do a doubletake. Maybe also a salto and a backflip, but he can't be so sure, not when he has to pull himself together to not rub his eyes like a disbelieving child. The fact that the man probably was the one who put Jaehyun back onto the bed and bandaged his head didn't help at all.

Jaehyun kows he is gay. In highschool he had some girlfriends at first, like expected from an individual of the male species, but he soon found out that he wasn't really fond of the opposite gender. He never understood the heated discussions about boobs and curves his male classmates liked to lead whenever a girl entered their field of vision. Sure, Jaehyun thinks curves are not so bad, but honestly? Boobs scare him. He almost suffocated to death when he was once trapped between the sheer mountains of a woman that accidentally ran into him, successfully knocking both onto the ground. Now that he thinks about it, it probably wasn't even an accident - not when she took about twenty seconds to _start_ standing up.

It's not like he can't appreciate the beauty of a woman. He can see Taeyon on the TV or in the latest magazine, posing in a suggestive manner, bringing out her features and body parts perfectly, and really, genuinely think and say that she's beautiful. But more in a way like somebody would call a flower or a painting beautiful. It's an adjective he associates with the other person, but not an adjective he can really feel (the impact of).

So Jaehyun really does question his sexuality as his vision, his entire being is grazed with... with this man- actually, god would fit more, even though he was anything but religious, but his current, limited vocabulary makes it hard for him to describe god, so he has to take drastic measures. Jaehyun is 100% fucking sure he just went from gay to hetero to gay again. Big, but sharp, skyblue eyes (that he feels tearing through his soul) seem to give him a once over. His eyebrows are sharp, one parted by a scar, which, in his humble opinion, looked incredibely cool.

A straight, cute nose together with a pair of pretty, pink, very kissable (his brain unhelpfully provided) lips finished his sharp, impossibly clean (albeit pale, milky) face with high cheekbones. And _holy shit_ , his hair was a bright, stark white, stylishly slicked back, some intentionally unintentionally falling back in his face or framing it beautifully.

God is wearing a lightblue shirt with a goddamn tie, who wears ties outside work, seriously (he's definitely not jealous that this guy can wear it so effortlessly), a lighter, thin, striped jacket draped around his shoulders. His impossibly long legs are clad in simple, black ripped jeans (he tries not to salivate immediately), plain sneakers finishing his attire.

Jaehyun is sure that he's drooling right now, his ancestors, who watch him from their thrones in the sky, utterly disappointed and probably facepalming. He still doesn't believe that afterlife shit, but it does make a funny picture in his head, enough to overcome his religious abyss. He's also sure that his dick is starting to get half hard (probably already is), so he shifts the covers as discretely as possible to hide his growing erection. And the last thing he needs is the god discovering Jaehyun got a boner from watching him, and that was so shallow, so weak, he really hopes another deity would come and end his existence.

Preferably a reaper, and preferably also one that could erase the memories of everyone who witnessed the scene, too. Jaehyun is well aware he hasn't had a relationship of any kind in about a year, and yes, that makes him a tiny bit desperate and horny, but it still doesn't justify the fact he got a _boner_. By looking at the mans features, even if they were fine as hell.

Other people get it when they see naked skin, hot stares (well he sure does define that stare as hot) and suggestive actions or positions (probably more, but he won't go and start thinking abut all the kinks and turn-ons of mankind), but Jaehyun apparently gets it by looking at him, just standing, with layers and layers of clothing. He's not even remotely naked or someth- _ohhhhh shit, **definitely wrong direction brain and Libido**_ \- and it's a crime against mankind (he's sure god would make lesbians and straight men doubt themselves) with how fucking _good he's Looking_.

Basically, he looks like all of Jaehyuns nerdy anime and videogame fantasies (he makes sure to delete his internert history dutifully every night before he goes to bed) decided to unite, become a hundred times better and become... _this_. Jaehyun definitely doesn't find himself complaining, but he does complain at the sudden itch on his back. The aura around god seems different than WinWins. The latter ones was more demanding, filled more space to the point of gentle suffocation, but right now Jaehyun just feels... incredibely cold, on edge, giving him a constant feeling of… _not knowing_.

He lets out a shiver, and only then his brain decides to work on the sentence god spoke out earlier (it had very, very important things to do first, one has to set priorities), but the only thing he can really understand is- nothing. So he speaks, hoping he would not embarrass himself or something. "A-aura?" A stutter, and a single word that he didn't even come up with himself. Great.

"Aura refers both to the visible presence they are executing, but also to the affinity of elemental energy they possess." Jaehyun, theoretically, understands it, but it honestly does sound like a load of crap. Like someone who read way to many science fiction books (watching movies do books no justice) and decided that now it was appropriate to use all that weirdass vocabulary on other People, because it would be fun to confuse them, pretending to not knowing that beforehand. But he decides to play along because why the fuck not?

"So... his Aura is Walking-Through-Walls? Quite a mouthful if you ask me, although it can be helpful, I guess." Gods one split eyebrow, which came to rest during their short conversation, goes up again. "If you want to view it from that perspective, it certainly isn't wrong. But then we'd both be able to walk through walls as well, but since he is not able to transfer his _Walking-Through-Walls _Aura on other individuals, we're not. Especially not humans like you." Gods voice was a velvet tone, somewhere between deep and deeper-than-normal, and it doesn't only make his pants tighten again, but also makes him a bit sleepy. It's... very pleasant to listen to. That totally does not make him sound like a creep.__

 

 

What does sound weird though, is the hidden, or not so hidden implication that god was not human (obviously), unlike Jaehyun. He hears an almost unaudible sigh, and sees long, black eyelash flutter a bit. "Let me start from the beginning. I know you humans have only seen stuff similar to this on the screen, but in this case, it's very real and not some kind of dream or prank that is being played on you. Let me give you a quick demonstration." God pulls out one hand from his pocket and lifts it, palm upwards.

Slowly, ice starts to crystallize on his hand, trailing upwards, spreading out, vanishing when it reaches a certain distance. Jaehyun watched in silent awe as tiny snowlakes make their way through the cold air, as if they were dancing to a sweet melody unknown to the watchers. After a few seconds god lets his hand resume its original position, last pieces of white and light blue disappearing completely, not leaving any evidence of them ever being there. And- did Jaehyun hit his head too hard or did that human looking god (or godlooking human) just create ice with one bare hand? Maybe he was right about the special effect thing, it looked like they just found their male Elsa. But he knows technology isn't that advanced yet, can't be that real, but it's still hard to believe that he appears to be in some kind of avatar setting where people have... what's it called again? Natural energy? And can spit fire, or in this case appearently, ice.

"Aside from the fact you just went all Elsa... nevermind, _don't_ put that aside, did you just, like, let it snow out of nowhere? What the fuck." God looks at him like he is a lesser creature, which he probably is. "I think I just made it worse. Hold up, I'll-" he stops in the middle of the sentences, sharp eyes suddenly getting a faraway look. An involuntary shiver shakes Jaehyuns body again- he could feel the drop in temperature, and it's bordering on freezing right now - as gods gaze hardens, his face becoming a mask of concealed emotions.

After a few more seconds, God suddenly pushes himself off the wall, heading straight for Jaehyun. He is still quite literally frozen on the spot, poor limbs shaking in the temperature- _he did **not** sign up for whatever this is _-,__ and in the next moment, something unbelievable soft, but cold touches his lips. The moment it leaves them the room suddenly starts to get noticeable warmer, and before Jaehyun can do as much as even blink, god is gone.

 

 

The lingering, blazing cold on his lips offers no explanations.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun absently looks at the sleeping fake-hedgehog in his lap, making a vague gesture in Lucas direction. "What's your Aura then, If you don't mind me asking? Surely not some hedgehog summoning affinity."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this was long overdue. I promised it like, years ago, but never actually got around to properly publish it. So sorry ;-; To me the chapter seems somehow weird and rushed (there's a lot of information in for later use), so I'm sorry if it's like fast paced. I'm still trying to find a proper writing style or simply just the flow of writing a fanfiction.
> 
> Since the (Ir)regular teasers, my mind is full of CEO or Mafia AU NCT fanfictions. It's not a good idea to start thinking of one when this here barely even started, but uff. Men in suits (and glasses) are like, my total weakness. I was thinking about... uh, Jaehyun (this is his era you all gotta admit that or you aren't intelligent) as this bigass boss and Taeyong oBVioUsLy as the intern or secretary or whatever. Very cliche. But I'm seriously itching to write one. I'm also playing with the idea of a reverse harem (it would be a shame to NOT feast on the beauty of all the other 127 members, like damn) BUT THAT WOULD BE KINDA OBVIOUS AND WISHFUL THINKING ahahah, Anyway.
> 
>  
> 
> Hope you can still somewhat enjoy this chapter.

 

 

 

 **J** aehyun wouldn't call it a kiss. The touch was barely there; a short, lingering sensation that wasn't meant to last longer than a suddenly ignited spark. When his rough fingertips slowly glide over the slightly chapped surface of his lips, an uncomfortable warm swashes through the lower parts of his stomach. It’s weird, he thinks, how he is barely bothered by that action. Not to mention he has no fucking idea why the other man would just initate that sort of contact with him.

Yeah, that was beyond his realm of thinking, and the more he thinks about it, the less sense it makes, so he just chooses to put these thoughts in a drawer in the furthest corner of his mind, closing it with more hesistation than he would have liked. Now his body feels warm all over, and before he turns into a human oven, he shrugs of his coat and scarf, dropping them onto the ground. 

Jaehyun doesn’t know how long he spend curled up on the bed, sorrounded by white muteness, but when a person suddenly enters his field of vision, he’s proud to admit that he only flinches a little. Despite not having to, especially given by the circumstances, Jaehyun quickly sits up to examine the newcomer.  

He’s tall, maybe even more than Jaehyun, handsome, with dirty blond hair unevenly parted. Big eyes appear to be giving him a once over, and when full lips transform into a small smile, Jaehyun relaxes.

The room feels calmer, less unknown, more familiar, and as the bed beings to dip under the weight of the man when he sits down next to Jaehyun, the scent that reaches Jaehyuns nose reminds him of a forest. A forest that just waltzed into the room where he is being held against his will (kind of?), invading his personal space.  

“Hello! You can call me Lucas, everyone does here. Boss was called to a... little emergency, so I’ll spontaneously explain what’s happening. Some of it, not everything. That would spoil the fun _aaand_ I’m not allowed to.”

His voice is deeper than Jaehyun expected, but the giddy, childlike tone balances is out. Lucas talks to him like they’ve known eachother for some time already, but strangely Jaehyun doesn’t mind. He seems to be a far more pleasant person than WinWin, and until now he can't make out any hidden threats or hostility in Lucas’ actions. But it has barely been a minute, so he chooses to continue listening. Not that he’d have much of a choice. 

On the side, the mention of an emergency would explain the sudden disappearence of god from earlier, then.  

"From now on, your life will do a 360° turn," he pauses for a moment, eyebrows scrunching up. “wait, 360 would mean it’d be the same as before. 180° then? But it’s less dramatic..” 

He clears his throat, “Anyway. I’m going to explain some stuff now, so just... make yourself comfortable,” his eyes dart to the little space that’s left on the bed, “as much as you can. 

“First of, I’d like to say we have absolutely zero bad intentions, especially with you. I’m sorry that we have to drag you through this, but it’s necessary. More necessary than you think.” Jaehyun doubts he will have much of an impact here with his presence, whatever that means, but he leans back on his elbows, nodding.

Then Jaehyun makes out a brown blurr on the edge of his vision, and as he turns to exam it, he finds a little hedgehog trippling on his left knee. In awe, Jaehyun slowly reaches out a tender Hand, but instead of touching the snout of the animal, his hand goes straight through it, a ghosty feeling enveloping his hand. Immediately he pulls it back (did he just indirectly touch the innards of it?), watching in silent amazement as the hedgehog continues to climb his thigh, unbothered that a hand just went through it.

He turns his head to look at Lucas, just in time to see a _bird_ making itself home on the shoulder he can see. Said man chuckles, a knowing glint in his eyes, completely unbothered by the sudden appearence of animals. Jaehyun _still_ doesn’t know what the fuck just happened _(yet again_ ). 

“What you can see here is a part of my **Aura**. Boss might have mentioned it before, but given by the short time he was in here, I doubt you could really understand anything. 

“It’s common knowledge that humans need stuff like oxygen, food and whatever to survive. Beside that though, there’s something that we call **Natural Energy**. It’s basically oxygen 2.0 and flows through everything and everyone, although only few are aware of that. Natural energy isn’t something one can consume though; so it just exists inside and outside of us.  

“There are people in this world who awaken the ability to wield that natural energy, but their number is very little. These are called **Alphas**. Why? I actually don’t know. Like, the founder guy or something just thought it would be cool. Has that dominating tone to it, you know? Superiority to others? Uh, _yeah_. Anway. 

“There aren’t any omegas or betas if that’s what you’re asking yourself, it’s just a term we use, so no counterparts or that weirdass heat and attraction thing they’ve got going on in fanfictions. Not that I’d read them or something.  

“We suspect that in Theory, everybody has the potential to be an Alpha, but that's a field that's not really been researched yet. Unluckily or luckily, depends on how you view it, none known Alpha has accomplished the scientific knowledge required to research that field and conduct experiements on it. All of what I tell you is based on personal experience and logical conclusions. 

"There are one or two people here who can tell you a bit more about it since I'm really not good with all that science stuff. Uh, where was I? Ah, **Aura**. Well, it's the term we use for the visible presence Alphas are executing, and what type of affinity we posses for natural energy."  

Jaehyun blinks, not realizing Lucas paused in his explanations, trying to comprehend the mass of incoming Information.

In theory, he understands everything what he's being told, but it sounds more like a written story rather than real circumstances, even though this would contrast greatly with whatever kind of magic Lucas earlier used to create these images of animals. In his peripheral vision a pink Flower delicately makes its way up his lap, sprouting from the White sheets, and Jaehyun has to supress the urge to touch and try to entangle it.

Maybe he’s just on one hell of a drug trip. He also can’t help but notice that Lucas words were the exact same words the so called boss from earlier used.  

“I will start with an Aura you already came in contact with. You met WinWin already, and his Aura affinity would be **Illusion**. The wall behind us,” he points towards that cursed wall which gave him quite the trauma since his involuntary stay, “is his creation. You don’t know it’s real, so it really materializes and manifests itself for you. However, me and Boss both know it’s an illusion, therefore we can see right through it if we want to.  

“Now that you also have the knowledge, you can later try going through it on your own.” Jaehyun doesn’t really feels the need to, so he’s glad when Lucas just continues.  

“This,” he points towards the now sleeping hedgehog in his lap, “is my Aura. It’s my **Visible Aura** , representing my affinity. Visible Auras are, by any means, not real, as you already experienced. So if you ever see a man or a woman leaving a path of flames behind, they are probably an Alpha and those flames are not real. How exactly they appear and what they do is different from Alpha to Alpha.

“Also important to note: they are a measure of power. To keep it very simple: the more impressive the Visible Aura, the stronger the Alpha.” Jaehyun  scratches his neck as his brain tries to process and store the information. It would probably be good story material.  

"Uh, yeah. By the way, WinWin likes to play cool, but he's actually a total dick about his Aura. He's unfortunately good at using it too, and that makes it even harder for other Alphas to detect his illusions. We can see traces of natural energy; where someone used their Auras, but there are Alphas who are good at keeping the detectebility of their auras to a bare minimum."  

Jaehyun feels like there's something missing, gnawing at the back of his mind, but he currently can't pinpoint what exactly it is, so he hopes it will come back to him later.

He absently looks at the sleeping fake-hedgehog in his lap, making a vague gesture in Lucas direction. "What's your Aura then, If you don't mind me asking? Surely not some hedgehog summoning affinity. " The blonde cracks another laugh, shaking his head. 

"That would be Chenles Aura, but it's more complicated than that and I'm sure you'll met him personally in the future where he can tell you more. I called mine **Calmness**. I don't summon plants or something, but my presence has a calming effect on people, mostly on animals of any kind. I can communicate with them and even give them orders they'll execute. Not the most impressive Aura out there, but I grew really fond of mine. " 

Lucas looks at the bird chirping at his shoulder, a small, but happy smile gracing his handsome face. The other man laughs, now knowing why he's conserving with Lucas so easily, who's not only related to his kidanpping, but also explaining a whole other world to him. Strangely enough he doesn't mind, even without his Aura he thinks Lucas would make a great companion and friend. He tells him that a moment later, and adds, "I don't know much about this stuff, still seems fishy to me, but visual proofs are hard to counter. Talking to animals, though? Pretty cool if you ask me." The Alpha watches Jaehyun for a few moments with a look he can’t quite place, but breaks out in a goofy smile. “Thank you.” 

Jaehyun finds himself blushing at that seemingly innocent, happy smile, and clears his throat. Lucas’ smile (if possible) widens, almost more teeth than actual grin. "It's important to note that there cannot be Alphas with the same Aura. 

“Yes, both may look like they wield water, but one could simply wield and bend already existing water particles, while the other could really create it out of nowhere and then shape it. 

“Every Aura has a weakness to them, some more subtle than the others, and, quite unfair if you ask me, some are much less prominent and easy to exploit than others. That topic is pretty intense, and goes past the Fire > Plant stuff we’ve grown used to since Pokèmon. That actually helps sometimes though.

“ _Buuut_ , judging by how much time already passed, I will trust my inner clock here, I should get going. I still have some stuff to do, and me coming here was a actually unplanned. I don't know, it's a lot to take in, and I'm sorry you have gotten into this mess. But you're here for a specific reason- no, don’t give me that look, you’ll be told when it’s time. So, anything else that bothers your mind? Except your stay here, sorry, can’t do much about that." 

Tempted to pout, Jaehyun decides against it in order to ask about God earlier. He really needs a name to call him something else. "There was a man here after WinWin. I assume it was your boss? White hair, tie-" 

 "Drop dead _gorgeous_? Can somehow wear a tie that's _not_ related to a suit and make it look like the _hottest_ shit ever?" Jaehyun stumbles upon his words, his neck and ears getting warm. Lucas waves him off, laughing. "Yeah, that's Boss. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Although, now that I think about it, I still have to pinch myself when I see him.  

“Boss is so _unreal_ it's… _yeah_ , forget what I said, you'll never get used to it." Giving the blonde a flustered look, Jaehyun fiddles with the hem of his shirt. "Who is he exactly? Everyone refers to him as Boss, does he have another name? And what's his... uh, Aura? I suppose it has something to do with ice? He did create some in the short time he was here." 

Lucas leans back, a slight frown evident on his face. "It's actually difficult. He will probably tell you about his Aura himself. I'm not sure if I should tell you anything about this organisation right now, Moon will probably do it, since he's also responsible for the more formal stuff. Boss' name is... _ahh_ , I'm not sure if I should tell you, I _almost_ don't wanna spoil the fun." 

 Lucas laughs at that, but there's something in the back of it that Jaehyun can't really decipher. "Well, I guess I can get away with telling you his name? I don't think he would mind as well. It's Taeyong."  

 **Taeyong** , huh? A pretty name, and finally he can call him somehing else than god and boss, but it's odd hearing a normal korean name within the masses of obvious fake ones. "Doesn't sound to me as some kind of special code name?" Brushing his shiny, black coat off, Lucas stands up, eyeing him a bit warily now. The change in his previous carefree behaviour startles Jaehyun, and he unconsciously straightens his back. Lucas' Aura does little to lessen the sudden tense atmosphere.   

"You know what code names are for, right? Maybe coolness. Anonymousity, not letting other people know your who you are. _Safety_. _Identity._ " He gives a dry laugh, ripping his gaze away from Jaehyun. "Some of us don't get or choose one, because they are either rarely involved in outside activities or just refuse to get one, even though it would be good for safety reasons, and no one forces them to, altough it's recommended. Boss... doesn't need all of that. No person outside this organisation lives long enough to tell about his name. Assuming they somehow get a grasp on that information."  

 There are a few seconds of silence, heavy with the hinted meaning. Then Lucas brightens visibly, another dashing smile on his face as he bids Jaehyun goodbye. “Uh, I probaly made it way more dramatic than it actually is. Just ignore it” Choosing not to comment on the stark changes he just witnessed, distracted by two little buttferlies happily flapping around the blondes head. "Don't think too much about it. You'll met him again in due time, but my stay is over. Was fun talking to you though!" Before the brunette can thank or give a proper goodbye, Lucas turns around and disappears in the wall. 

 To Jaehyuns credit, he doesn't even bat an eyelash as the other man disappears in the wall. He falls back onto the bad, stomach growling, and now that Lucas is gone, he kinda feels like shit again. Feeling a bit guilty about not thanking the man (he was just too friendly, always concerned for Jaehyuns wellbeing despite his situation, almost making him feel like he's not responsible in any way for it), he sighs. 

This is going to be way more complicated than he initianally thought, but he’s relieved that the kidnapping doesn’t seem to go into the worst directions, although he probably has only been scracthing on the surface. He turns his head around, facing the godamn wall on the opposite side. That can wait a bit, he thinks. So he closes his eyes, hoping that his brain will work on the recieved information in his sleep. Or nap.

 

 

 

 

As he slowly drifts off, a tiny part of him wishes that everything isn’t just a dream, and that he’ll wake up in the same, white room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit (17.02.29): I made some changes that will just help me writing the story in the future. Small things, some parts I left out, nothing big.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun exhales, preparing himself for yet another onslaught of information. He feels strangely satisfied by Taeyongs presence, room less empty than before. “I apologize once again for using such drastic measures to get you here, but we have good intentions only, I assure you. Now, the reason why you’re here? It’s because we need you. More specifically, I need you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is long overdue, but I'm happy it's out. A friend of mine who speaks excellent english has offered to beta read, but I'm always too impatient after I wrote down a chapter, so please bear with mistakes.
> 
>  
> 
> Please thank the Anime I watched this morning, it having a similar concept to this AU and thus helping me out with explanations and plot holes. After finishing it today I edited some small stuff in the second chapter that will help me with the story in the future, just to make it more smooth and believeable. Not really worth a re-read, but I won't hold you back.

The same, faded light greets Jaehyun when his eyes flutter open. Like water that’s slowly being soaked up by a sponge, the events from the time before he closed his eyes invade his mind. For the first moments, he just lets them run havoc in this mind, passively registering and looking at every information. 

Everything seems so surreal, like everything just decided normal fairy tales were boring, leading to them just jumping out and spreading their magical wings all over the world. Especially in Korea, more specifically in Seoul. Because that’s just his luck.  

On the other hand, he can hardly ignore the visual proofs he saw when Lucas or Taeyong entered the room (he’d rather forget WinWins encounter). Unless everything he saw up until now has been conjured by desperate parts of his mind only, dully reminding him of a certain event two months ago he immediately pushes back again.

Sure, it was boring as hell, not to mention the lack of friends and family, but that doesn’t mean his brain can just trick him into thinking it would be... less monotone, a lot more adventoures from now on. Natural Energy, Aura? It all speaks against everything Jaehyun experienced in his pitiful 21 years of living, so it would take a lot of time to take everything into account, and maybe try getting used to the fact that this might not be a product of his wild imagination. 

He sighs, runs a hand through his hair and grimaces at the feel of it. He’d need to get a shower soon, but before that, Jaehyun thinks about trying the supposedly illusionary wall. Standing up and walking towards it, Jaehyun can already make a slightly shimmering outline, which previously hasn’t been there. He inhales - hell, he saw people going through that shit - and tenderly reaches out a hand. 

He meets no resistance, a cool, watery feeling enveloping his hand that distinctively reminds him of the hedgehog. Exhaling loudly, he braces himself as he takes a step forward. He still has to flinch heavily and had to close his eyes, but when he meets zero resistance, he opens them again.  

A dimly lit hallway greets him. Jaehyun doesn’t exactly get an inviting feeling as his eyes adjust to the darker lighting, and feels like he just stepped into a bad horror movie.

The walls are a dark red, absorbing and barely reflecting the light that comes from little circles in the ceiling above. The ebony wood under his feet make no noise as he takes his first steps, fingers briefly skimming the painted walls, and Jaehyun is suprised when he inspects his fingertips: not an inch of dust visible. 

When the hallway parts, his earlier kind-of-confiedence completely leaves him. Right and left both look the same, and although Jaehyun doesn’t really think it will make any difference, his gut tells him to go left.  

His body aprubtly halts when he hears footsteps coming his way. Jaehyun's head whipes to the right, just in time to briefly see the unmistakeable shilouette of a man striding towards him. A heartbeat later the light illuminates him, and Jaehyun tells himself to not stare again.  

Short, silver hair shines brightly despite the dim lighting. Slightly tanned face doesn’t even hide the fact that he gives Jaehyun a slow onceover, and when he sees a pink tongue darting out to wet lips, Jaheyun defenitely doesn’t gulp.  

The unknown man nods in unspoken approvement, and catlike features visibly brighten; eyes forming little crescents.

“You must be Jaehyun, right?”

Said man decides to just ignore the fact a person he’s never seen in his entire life before knows his name, but the other also doesn’t give him much time to react or think. “Awesome. And you don’t even look that bad at all.”

The smaller man stretches out his hand, winks, and Jaehyun slowly reaches out to shake it, eyeing him a bit warrily.  

Just then Lucas’ face pops up in his mind, and almost shyly he looks down. The ground beneath the other is cracking up; brown earth shifting and moving in a constant, senseless rythm. Just then he realises he is still holding his hand, and he hastily retreats it. A faint blush creeps up on his face when he makes eyecontact again, and the knowing smirk that playfully sits on the others pink lips don’t do anything to make him feel less vulnerable.

“I’m Ten,” he continues, as if he didn’t just catch Jaehyun staring, “my real name is probably too difficult anyway. I’m actually pretty lucky to meet you; Johnny already mentioned your arrival.” He wouldn’t really call it an arrival, but, oh well. 

“I’m headed for the kitchen right now. Jungwoo blasted half of it away _again_ , and of course I’m the only one to temporarily fix it until the craftsmen arrive. But I suppose that’s not where you should go right now, hm?” 

A lot of unfamiliar names, but the fact that someone appearently destroyed the kitchen does little to ease his nerves right now.  

“I’m sure I can take you to Boss’ office. Seeing as you overcame that stupid wall,” he jerks his head to the direction where Jaehyun came from, “I’m sure he won’t mind. And you didn’t try running off or attacking me yet, so I guess you’ll behave.”

Ten then cackles, exposing glinting white teeth. “Not that you could do much to me anyway.” 

Jaehyun would like to point out that no sane human would attack a person who’s likely able to impale you with spears of ice or whatever as a response, but holds himself back.

“I don’t think he’ll appreciate talking to you in a room that screams serious buisness too much, but even for you it’s too soon to see his room.” He serves him a cocky wink together with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, then fluidly moves past a flustered Jaehyun to the left direction.  

Seeing his smaller getting back, Jaehyun guesses Ten wants him to follow, and after he starts moving to catch up, he rubs his temple, annoyed at the slight headache that just appeared out of nowhere. Not even a full minute has passed since he met Ten, and he already feels overwhelmed by the whirlwind that he seems to embody.  

“It’s not far away from your original room,” Ten calls over his shoulder, not bothering to fully look back, “and someone will give you a real tour through this building one day. I swear there are more doors and hallways than necessary, so don’t let that scare you off.”  

With all the doors passing him left and right, he does kind of feel like in a hotel now. One he didn’t remember booking, and certainly an even stranger vacation _(if you could call it that)_ , but Jaehyun doesn’t feel like he has a say in this, so he just goes with the flow to minimalize possible incoming damage.

Better to make a good impression than a bad one, especially given by the difference in power between him and... _well_ , most certainly the rest of this place.  

Watching the constantly unraveling earth beneath the smaller man, he holds the question about his Aura back, considering it rude to ask. He can imagine it being a personal or even intimate question, like revealing some personal information to close friends, so Jaehyun supresses his curiousity in favor of courtesy, already feeling a bit bad that he asked Lucas earlier.

Jaehyun is just immensely intrigued, and since he already encountered Illusion, Ice and something akin to Nature, he wonders just how many more unique possibilities there are.  

He’s pulled out of his thoughts when he bumps into the back of Ten, barely managing to catch himself to prevent nearly kissing the floor, still mainting bits of his precious first impression. Ten appearently seems unfazed, and it bothers Jaehyun more than he should, especially given the height and frame difference between them. 

The door to his left is black with golden, shining letters that spell out **BOSS** in eye height. Just the letters make Jaehyun feel nervous, and he supresses the need to shiver. That word will haunt him in his dreams; probably also triggering traumatic memories in the future.

_Great, just what I need._

Ten opens the door, shoving him in rather rudely. “Wait here, best to not touch anything. Make yourself comfortable, just don’t sit in his chair.” The door slams close, leaving Jaehyun alone. 

The room is not too different from the hallway, but lighter in shading. The walls are void of any pictures or additional decorations, and he can spot a big, black table in the middle, typically seperating boss and employee. The boss’ chair is gorgeously dark in colour with generous proportions, while a much simpler, wooden stool stands on the opposite side, and the brunette tries to not feel discriminated against.  

It feels empty, uncomplete, and even the desk itself is clean, only a neatly arranged pile of papers sitting on the right side of the desk. There’s no more furniture save from the door in the back of his room, and although it sparks interest in him, the feeling to just not experience something new holds him in place. Also, he’d rather not get caught doing something he probably shouldn’t have done.  

He walks to the simple chair and sits down, feeling odd and just not himself overall. His movements are stiff he vaguely notes, mechanical even, but it’s hard to relax in an unknown, different envoirement that just gives him an overall feeling of uneasiness, feeling like he’s about to recieve detention. Not that he can get one anyway. 

 

 

It’s weird, he thinks. It’s weird that he doesn’t throw a fit, doesn’t fight back in any way (not that he could, but it’s about the intention of the act). He probably should. After all, they did kidnap him, put him in this strange building, superhumans walking around and changing the order of nature itself, but still behaving like he’s a new friend, welcoming him into  their close circle. 

They make it sound like it’s necessary for him to be here, not something they would have done voluntary otherwise, but when he gets to the why and how, nothing really makes sense. WinWIn has been the only person who seemed uncomfortable in his presence, but on the other hand, he didn’t try to harm him either.

Except setting up that stupid room with that stupid wall, Jaehyun finds that act purely offensive as well, but he thinks the Illusionist is probably that passive agressive to everyone.  

It’s just so controversary sometimes, he can’t get his head around the whole thing. And he’s not naive enough to believe that’s everything; there has to be so much more that’s going to happen around him, and Jaehyun doesn’t know wether to be scared or... interested. 

Jaehyun knows his lack of resistance and defiance probably results from detachment to his everyday life up until now. An ugly, female laughter roars inside his head, twisting its way through his thoughts. If he had any family, anything remotely important in life _(dull bang in his chest)_ , would he have taken things differently? He loathes it, his lacking importance in society, to anyone, really. He knows his parents, but the bond between them never grew past blood connection, and the little circle of friends are basically just drinking collegoues he goes out with twice a month.  

He doesn’t know what’s right or wrong anymore, everything just blurring together, making it hard to see the lines that used to seperate them. For now, Jaehyun thinks, he’ll neither have to be scared or interested. He’d just have to wait, accept and adapt. And if a small amount of coriousity comes into the mix, it shouldn’t be too harmful, right?  

He defenitely needs a week worth of sleep to properly function like a decent human being again.  

 

 

The only warning Jaehyun gets is the sudden appearance of a terrifying amount of energy behind him, and in the next second the door busts open, nearly blown off the angles. A cruel, dark coldness practically drips into the room, curling around the edges, thick and heavy. The corners of the room and the furniture are being coated in a sleek sheet of ice, making Jaehyun flinch when he hears his poor chair making sounds of protests as the ice engulfs it. Fast, but soft steps echo behind him, and Jaehyun, inhaling a deep breath that make his lungs burn with the stinging sensation of the low temperature, swallows audibly. 

It’s Taeyong, walking towards his desk, cold power radiating off of him, demanding attention, floor more and more becoming a pilant surface of ice beneath him with every step he takes. His face is soft and harsh at the same time, mouth set into a thin line, eyebrows relaxed, but his eyes speak of fury and what he can only describe as bloodlust that have him nearly falling off the chair. 

Jaehyun rarely felt terrefied or even remotely scared in his life. Having no job and looking for another was a time he felt pressured at, but he didn’t have any fears for his future unlike most of his peers at the same situation; for him it was just something he needed to overcome. Asking his parents for help and the sight of cockroaches _(works of the devil himself)_ are probably the only things that come close to making him feel scared, but right now, it seems he needed to add Taeyong to that list, because that man didn’t look, but rather _felt_ like death reincarnation looking out for... death.

Possibly even something worse, but that’s where Jaehyun’s capacity of imagination reaches its limit. 

Taeyong walks past him in a confident stride, still eerily calm despite turning the entire room into an ice cave, sits down in front of him and leans back, observing Jaehyun through slightly frost-coated eyelashes. The white haired man leans forward, elbows on the desk with interlaced fingers, staring at Jaehyun with no visible amount of shame. After a while Jaehyun doesn’t know wether he shakes from the cold or from the intensity of the gaze, but then he just feels what he can only describe as a massive, pulsating waves of energy slowly subduing. After a minute, the waves have been reduced to angry, irregular ripples.

It’s still cold in the room, but less than it was before, and finally Jaehyun could fully supress the shattering teeth.  

Looking at the table, he notices how the cold coating of the furniture is slowly backtracking until there’s almost nothing but moist surface left, the iced, spiked corners of the room also retreating themselves into their origin, droplets. When he looks up, the hard line of Taeyong’s mouth are now softer, eyes a dull memory of the burning fire.

And he still manages to look so fucking beautiful after almost turning Jaehyun into a popsticle. Now that he thinks about it, he also looked fucking beautiful in the process of doing so, but these thoughts reached out into a different direction Jaehyun was not ready to explore and dwell on yet. 

“I apologize. It was rude of me to startle you like that, especially with that... entrance. It wasn’t necessary despite me doing so.” He tries feeling the part of the victim, but all he feels is slight guilt about Taeyong acting so apologetic towards him which is entirely out of place given the earlier situation.  

“Lucas filled you in on the basic rights?” Taeyong doesn’t wait for confirmation.

“I will tell you your position here. Why we brought you here, your impact on the future. I know you’ve already been told a lot, things that most defenitely surpass your imagination, but bear with me. We’re on a real tight time schedule, so we need to make every second count.” 

Jaehyun exhales, preparing himself for yet another onslaught of information. He feels strangely satisfied by Taeyongs presence, room less empty than before. “I apologize once again for using such drastic measures to get you here, but we have good intentions only, I assure you. Now, the reason why you’re here? It’s because we need you. More specifically, _I_ need you.” 

It’s completely different from what the other man had been expecting, so he only manages to blink owlishy a few times, trying to form sentences and make sense of what he just heard. “You need me? Why? What can I do to help wth... whatever you’re doing?” 

Taeyong stands up and starts pacing back and forth in a slow, tactful rythm.  

“I’m powerful, Jaehyun, certainly the most powerful in Asia, and one of the most powerful in the entire world. If I wanted to, I could crush entire cities and states with my will and some fancy arm movements, but I'm still a functioning human beign with a healthy brain and _decent enough_ morals, so I won’t. Doesn’t change the fact that I can, though, but that aside, I’m growing _too_ powerful.” 

Jaehyun has a very hard time believing everything he said, but at the same time, the demonstration from earlier lulled him into the realm of thinking about the possibility of it being all true.

It’s still hard imagining Taeyong doing something that would look like a daily task that results in a deadly blizzard, swallowing  entire cities in one go, and the mentions of others who might just be as capable as him have him question his previous life. There’s a storm of possible questions and answers in his head, but all he gets out is, “That’s pretty self confident of you.”, and then he suddenly wishes he would really have turned into a popstickle earlier, mentally slapping himself.  

Luckily for his dear life, Taeyong only chuckles at that, and despite it sounding a bit awkward, probably not used to it after harboring negative emotions for some time, he just stops walking to look at Jaehyun directly.  

“My Aura has been growing, Jaehyun. We assume there’s a limit for every Alpha out there, a limit he can’t exceed with his powers, no matter how hard he trains in the art of using it. I’ve never tried using my full potential, thank god I never _needed_ to, but I know that my limits are being pushed further and further back. And you know what? I’m truly terrified of the consequences.”  

Jaehyun tilts his head, the temperature in the room back to normal, all traces of previous ice gone.

“What does it have to do with me? It’s... a lot, a big concept you’re talking about, but it’s not _entirely_ unbelieveable. I’ll have to see a lot for myself, but it just throws out more questions than answers. You said you need me, but I don’t know anything that might help you with that issue.” 

Taeyongs eyes glint, the remainings of the fire long gone, ashes littered on a cold floor, and runs a hand through his white hair, strands immediately falling back to their original position afterwards, also sucessfully making Jaehyun's stomach turn in a weird way.

“Everytime a potential Alpha is born, there’s a shift in natural energy everyone strong enough can feel. When they awaken their Aura for the first time, their Natural Energy inside their bodies then practically glows like a beacon the next few days, enabling us to search and find them, taking them into our custody after explaining everything to them. Everything behind our organisation and what we do is for another day. 

"Important to note is that on February 14th 1996, there wasn’t a simple disruption. It felt like it teared an entire hole through the normal flow, and even the less powerful ones could feel that. Only a few months before that I noticed my first changes, so I knew the newborn had something to do with it. We kept an eye on everyone who has been born on that day, but only recently we discovered that you were the Alpha that caused the massive disruption.  

"Remember about the Natural Energy shining like a beacon? Yours did the exact opposite. Yours gradually sucked it in, swallowing it, and instead of a beacon we found something similar to what I would describe as a black hole. That was about two months ago, something must have happened on that day since awakenings usually require hard emotional outputs to your Body and mentality to come to the surface.” 

It all comes back, crashing him with a force that left him shaking again despite the warm temperature. Two months ago he found his boyfriend cheating on him, and that was probably the worst day in his life. Jaehyun did his best trying to ban his entire existence out of his head, succesfully managed to do so given with how he didn’t even think once of him during his whole turbulent stay here, but the reminder of the vague date just made them burst all out again. He pushes these thoughts back to their drawer as best as he could, gulping down any unecessary feelings that threaten to fully restrict his throat.

The Alpha doesn’t say anything, appearently sensing his inner conflict, confirming his suspicions.  

“I could add more boring details, but let’s skip to the main part: Jaehyun, you’re an Alpha, and your Aura is recently awakened, but not developed. It’s in the earlierst stage, and we will help you accepting and mastering it, but the key point is: we estimate your Aura will constantly consume natural energy later on.

"Right now it’s not even a tickle, the slightest sensation of touch, but it will grow. It will grow hungrier and it will consume more, feed more,” he pauses, leaning towards Jaehyun over the desk, hands splayed out on the table, and the brunette could count the frozen tips of his eyelashes.

 

“You're not dumb, Jaehyun, You know what comes. Others will be too weak to hold our for a longer time near you, Jaehyun, but since mine in particular is doing the opposite of yours, growing? 

 

 

**“We’re counterparts, Jaehyun. We need eachother in order to not destroy the entire world.”**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hohoho a bit cliche yes I apologize, please bear with me. Also, we get to see a lil' bit of Ten who's an absolute bias wrecker. 
> 
> I hope the plot won't get so confusing and stuff aahh, maybe it will turn out to be very complicated and shitty ;-; let's hope not.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm toying with the idea of creating some kind of glossary someday together with an overview over NCT in this particular universe. Not sure how I'll do the overview yet, but I already planned to involve every member individually as well each with a different role and ability. With 21 (18 at that time) people it can be confusing, so maybe I'll do it (Maybe even with Pictures? I personally always find it helpful to know which era the author take the carachters from)
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for reading , Kudos and Comments are appreciated!
> 
>  
> 
> (Taemin absolutely killed me with his comeback (him being my sec ult bias), rendering me useless even further. Monsta X and SF9 also comeback this month which will probably stretch my writing time generously as well.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training with Johnny, Jaehyun learns, is like when teachers introduce classes to a new topic, using older, already familiar methods, before slapping you in the face with things you'd never dream of trying, much less completing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive!! afer NCT's combeack!!! just barely tho lol
> 
> i honestly have no excuse and nothing to say. i just wanna thank my beatiful follow_the_white_rAbbit_777 for beta-reading through my chapter and future chapters and stories and yeah. love you honey. there still might be some mistakes cauz i sponteanously added some stuff.
> 
> fifth chapter in draft, i almost finished school, and yh. i'm bored out of my mind and she already send me the read through version ages ago and only now i'm coming back to it and posting it. i'll try writing more frequently, but it's like my anime phase: on and off switch, nothing inbetween.

Jaehyun stops breathing, body unable to decide between laughing and crying.

“I’m your- _what_?” The word counterpart doesn’t even get past his lips, and the brunette feels like he is choking on it. Up until now he has been ok, almost _fine_ with the idea of other people having these Auras, he is a rational man after all, and even though it isn‘t logical seeing people freeze stuff over, it certainly isn‘t an illusion, either. Or another form of WinWin.

Jaehuny’s head feels like it is spinning. The situation he is in just keeps getting more confusing the more he thinks about it. Hearing Lucas and initinially Taeyong talk about who they are and how they work gave him a brief insight into an entirely different reality, but up until now he never truly felt like a part of it, more like a bystander watching a mystery unfold, witnessing everything but never participating in anything.

Right now Taeyong is forcefully pulling him from his comfortable little bubble, throwing him into the depths of the cold sea and although Jaehyun can swim, the water has never pulled him so deep and has never been so ferocious before. He is totally going to faint again.

“I don’t think it‘s been two days since I got here and now you’re telling me I’m, like, a big black hole that’s gonna rob everyone of their energy? Oh my god, what the actual fuck.”

“Black holes are a lot more complicated than that, and a very interesting physical phenomenon if I might add. If you want, I could tell you more About them someday.

"It’s not the right term for your condition, but it’s similar to how your aura is going to work. It’s just a guess, we can never truly predict what your Aura will really be like, but we do think it’s almost guaranteed that... you are my counterpart.”

It sounds strangely intimate, the way the last sentence just rolls off his tongue, but, no, no matter how pretty Taeyong is and how promising (or not so promising) all of this sounds, he strongly dislikes the idea of binding himself to an individual so permanently, especially without being able to give his consent, free will existing and all. A small voice in his head whispers that there are many, _many_ far less attractive people he could spend the rest of his life with, but he tries to ignore it.

He doesn’t know the white haired man yet, only knows he’s pulling off a Jack Frost cosplay down to the powers, needs to eat a lot more and is the supposed leader of an underground organisation that has something to do with superpowers. But that’s about it; and Jaehyun doubts (from the earlier time mentions from Taeyong) that they’ll have enough time to get to know each other properly over candelight and dinner.

The idea itself sounds like a one-night stand minus the sex, plus a lifetime of being bound to one another. Defenitely not his cup of tea.

“You’re thinking and worrying about this too much,” the other says, fingers tapping onto the wooden surface of the desk, the rythm unsettling Jaehyun. He wants to deny that and say how easy it’s for him to say that, but he doesn’t have the energy to maintain a conversation that is probably going to turn into an endless circle of arguments. “Judging by the rate your Aura is growing at, it’s not fully accustomed to it’s awakening yet. We should have a bit of time, about two to three months, before it really sets in.”

He says it with such casuality, it's kind of hard for Jaehyun to believe.

“You’re taking it rather well.”

The brunette raises an eyebrow. “Does it look like that? Internally I’m freaking out, trust me. I think I've reached the point where you guys could tell me the weirdest stuff I’ve ever heard and I'd just accept it because the rational part of my brain is completely overworked and about to shut down. I'm probably going to explode later on, give me a couple of hours. Or days.”

“Never said it was easy. Take your time adjusting to everything. You have about... 11 hours to sleep on it.” The taller doesn’t know where Taeyong randomly got the time, given the lack of watches in the room, so he just blames it on his Aura abilities.

The white haired man removes his hands from the desk and walks over to the door, turning towards Jaehyun, right hand on the door knob. “I’ll show you to your room. You'll get even more input tomorrow. You can try asking questions then, but there still are specific topics that are not be branched yet, so please don't take it the wrong way if my people don't, or rather, can't answer. I suggest you try to get some sleep and then look at everything again with a well-rested mind.”

Although Jaehyun kind of wants to argue with him and demand explenations which would be highly counterproductive since every incoming information is already overwhelming his brain, his body reacts on ist own and stands up to follow Taeyong. 

 

 

 

They don’t encounter other people on the way to Jaehyun’s room. The only thing he is vaguely aware of is that he’s walking and turning and watching, rest forgotten or going unnoticed. When Taeyong stops, he doesn’t bump into him this time (the one incident with Ten was embarassing enough), and walks through the door. He’s glad they didn’t meet anyone new – he feels like any additional  
information would have fried his brain for sure.

  
He doesn’t take much time inspecting everything, but he notes that the room is big enough to contain a petite desk with a chair neatly tucked in front of it, a small couch and a TV right next to it. The walls and floor are a disappointing, dull grey, but suprisingly clean given the light Colour, and free of any blemishes. There is a single bed in the corner, and Jaehyun thinks it’s the most comfortable-looking bed he has ever seen.

 

His exhaustion probably also plays into that (he's sure even his poor bed at home is more comfortable than this), but he ignores it in favor of striding towards it, tempted to just

throw himself onto the white sheets.

  
“I’ll send one of my subordinates tomorrow to come and fetch you. Don’t worry about food or clothing, everything will be prepared for you once you wake up. I trust you to not try to escape or do something that would result in... _consequences_ I’d rather like to avoid.” Taeyong leans back against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest.

  
“It’s useless, anyways, since we _will_ find you." He gives a humourless chuckle at that, but afterwards his eyes soften the tiniest bit.

 

"My apologies, I don’t mean to sound so threatening. I just really don’t want anything to happen to you and I want you to adjust to everything here as smoothly as possible.” Jaehyun gives in and falls face first into the bred, groaning while doing so, not choosing to answer or comment. Instead, he wriggles around into a more comfortable position, not caring how he looked like in front of the other man.

 

“Please, my brain is already at its limit. No escaping, got it. Someone wakes me up, more brainfuck. Shit that rhymed, wasn’t intentional.”

  
He’s sure the words are muffled beyond recognition, but he hears Taeyong making what he identifies as an amused noise. Jaehyun hears the door creaking, and assumes he was about to leave the room. “I can’t apologize enough, but still, have a good night. Try not to worry too much.”

  
He almost misses the last words, already drifting off to sleep, dreaming of white cotton candy with sparkling, blue sprinkles.

 

 

 

 

There are clothes on his desk when he wakes up, neatly folded with a sticky note on them. Groaning, Jaehyun pushes his blanket aside and makes a face at having slept with his clothes on. The events of  
the previous day start to slowly come back to him, but if Jaehyun is honest with himself, he doesn’t want to deal with anything at the moment, so he chooses to let his brain quietly work in the furthest corner of his mind.

 

He walks towards the desk, still groggy, hair probably sticking out in every direction.

 

_jaehyun,_  
_hope you had a somewhat decent sleep. don't bother taking a shower, just change into these clothes._  
_someone will come get you and take you to your first lesson in due time **.**_  
_**\- ty** _

 

  
Raising an eyebrow at the short greeting, Jaehyun's eyes skim through the contents of the note. He starts to grimace as he reads the last sentence, not wanting to think about what is in store for him.  
Jaehyun actually does shower, rebellious inner self winning and also finding it pretty unhygeniec if he doesn’t. He can’t exactly remember his last shower (should at least have been less than a week ago  
though, considering he doesn’t smell that much yet), but he thinks that he defenitely needed one.

 

The refreshed feeling the shower leaves him with makes it all the more worth it. Despite the cold shower his mind is still working lazily, somehow aware that he needs to adapt to the situation he is currently in and just do whatever it is he has to do for now.

 

Jaehyun shakes his head, slipping a simple tank top, boxers and black short onto his on his naked form. He puts the  
used pile of clothing on the Floor, hoping no one would mind.

 

As if on cue, there’s a polite but firm knock on the door, and when Jaehyun opens it, a tall what he assumes to be an Alpha meets him, leafy plants and thick branches immediately invading his room.  
He jumps back instinctively when one of them almost grips his ankle, barely supressing a yelp, but it just goes through him and proceeds to continue growing on the other side.

 

“Woops, sorry about that.”

 

His head snaps back to look at the newcomer who digs into both pockets of his trousers, eyes darting nervously around the room, everywhere but Jaehyun. After a few awkward seconds he pulls out a necklace and puts it around his neck, Shining omniously before it disappears under his clothes.

 

The plants and branches disappear immediately. He then holds out a hand, clearing his throat, finally eying Jaehyun who was still perched in his impressive kung fu stance that probably didn't even come close to the real thing.

 

“I’m Johnny. Sorry, I just forgot to put it on, I usually don’t need it, 's been a while since  
we had someone new.”

 

Jaehyun relaxes and shakes the offered hand, marveling at the strong grip. “Jaehyun, although you probably already know that.”

 

Johnny is tall, rides on a wave of confidence despite his earlier hesistation. Dark, parted bangs fall into warm eyes, and Jaehyun gives an inner nod at the other's appeareance. After some more small talk, Johnny leads him to one of the training rooms a few floors down.

 sdd

“You’re more fit than most starting Alphas are, but we’ll still need to work on your body so it can cooperate better with your aura.” Johnny might only be a little taller than him, but especially now, in the middle of the open practice field, he stands there like he's never been somewhere else. 

  
Jaehyun warily Scans him from top to bottom, eyeing the rippling biceps and leg muscles exposed by his tank top and shorts he previously hadn’t had time to notice. He likes to think he isn’t too bad himself, but he defenitely never sported anything close to a six-pack you'd see on TV or magazines.

  
“Boss gave me a month to get you into shape, two to make you maintain it. A shorter time than I would have liked, but that means more effort, and more effort equals more sweat and muscles.” He grins and says it with so much motivation, Jaehyun is genuienly convinced that Johnny believes sports must be the greatest invention of mankind.

 

"Besides, we're starting off from a better point that I anticipated. Don't worry," he says, clapping Jaehyun _hard_ on his shoulder, "I'll turn you into a man woman will drool over. Not that they wouldn't right now, you know, uhh- you know how I mean it. They will just drool more, not that you _don't_ look good already, it's just, _oh my god_ , what am I even saying- please ignore my rambling _thankyouverymuch_."

 

 

  
Training with Johnny, Jaehyun learns, is like when teachers introduce classes to a new topic, using older, already familiar methods, before slapping you in the face with things you'd never dream of trying, much less completing.

 

They start off with laps around the room, altering the way of running inbetween, then proceed to stretch. There aren’t any issues with that. The first few excercises ease him into working out, all of them familiar, but then Johnny calls fucking _WinWin_ over who just so happens to be in the same room and that’s when all hell breaks loose.

 

They have stretching session of half an hour, Johnny seemingly not the best at it, but WinWin pushes him into positions he never knew were humanly possible. What makes it worse is that  
WinWin proves they _are_ indeed, contorting his body in ways that make Jaehyun's stomach churn in the most uncomfortable ways.

By the end of the first session Jaehyun feels like he has broken in half already, and he is 100% sure WinWIn went extra hard on him (but still didn't go all out), given his inexplicable dislike towards Jaehyun.

  
The rest of the session _thankfully_ takes place with the tall Alpha, and they go through several pieces of gym equipment in the back of the room Jaehyun is actually familiar with. They don‘t go for fast, quick movements, Johnny makes him do every movement agonizingly slowly, and Jaehyun is sweating buckets ten minutes into the other half of the session. Oh yeah, that's why Taeyong told him to not bother showering.

 

The burn in his muscles doesn‘t help his damaged ego as he witnesses Johnny doing everything with ease as he Shows Jaehyun the ropes, just like WinWin, his brain unhelpfully provided, but it pushes Jaehyun into at least trying to complete the tasks. When he has gotten through every piece of gym Equipment, he practically inhales the water that is offered to him. He asks where the showers are, but Johnny just Looks at him in pure disbelief, necklace glistening at his throat.

 

“What do you mean? That was only the warm up round.”

 

So yes, screw Johnny for introducing him nicely to excercising and then brutally murdering his motivation when he felt like he could actually do it. Just like new topics in school - carefully introducing it, giving you the illusion that you actually might be capable of finally understanding at least one topic, and then, yeah. Confronting you with the actual problem you have no idea how to even get the idea of solving it.

 

He feels half dead, currently laying on the floor, mouth probably gaping open like a fish's and making perfect blackmail material for WinWin who is holding his phone at a suspiciously ideal picture-taking angle, but he doesn’t find the strength in himself to care. It will bite him back in the future, he just knows it, but right now he doesn't even want to move a cell of his body.

  
On the way to the shower he meets a kid named Jungwoo, pretty with ashen hair that falls into equally grey eyes, but the pulsating violet energy and electricity around him make him feel on edge. He  
swears he sees the visible Aura arround him cracking sometime, literally _cracking_ , violet mass falling apart and revealing an unsettling amount of pure blackness, but that’s also the time when he pats  
Jungwoo on his back, wishing him good luck with his training and sprinting the remaining way, trying to get that weird Aura out of his head.

 

For a second he wonders if Johnny would also try to break the delicate looking Alpha, but at the same time, he is probably more accustomed to it than he lets on, and Jaehyun groans, having to keep his

prejudice under control. He reminds himself again and again, especially here, not to judge a book by ist cover. For all he knows, Jungwoo could have probably tossed him about like a ragdoll.

  
He decides against a cold shower as he goes into one of the stalls, quietly marveling at the tidy state of the shower room. Nobody seems to be here, so he turns the shower on, steps under the spray and lets it work its magic on his sore, sore body. He combs shampooed hands through his hair, absentmindedly staring at the white, symmetrical tiles on the opposite wall.

  
His feelings and thoughts catch up to him, now that he wasn't dying of exhaustion anymore, and free of any major, physical tasks. It’s barely been two days and here he is, the hardest workout of his life behind him with the promise of more to prepare his body for his awakened Aura. In other words, preparing him for something so big, Jaehyun thinks he’ll never fully get a grasp on it.

 

Everything he learned in school and college didn’t prepare him one little bit for what’s about to come, isn’t helping him with anything right now, so it’s natural that Jaehyun can’t help but feel that he‘s wasted half of his life. Especially when the nagging voice in the back of his mind tells him that he'd probbaly never get out of whatever this was- he'd never be able to live a properly normal life again. Unless they erase his memories, and given by how diverse his encountered Auras have been, he's sure it's not impossible to posses an Aura that could manipulate the brain. 

 

Even then he's sure his body would somewhat remember, weird, odd leftover sensations here and there, the impressions to big to forget completely.

 

It’s maddening, knowing something is about to happen, but not knowing what exactly. He can’t do anything but accept what’s coming his way, absorbing every piece of information to the point of his brain overflowing with information, trying to find a way to cope with everything. It really doesn’t help that he’s appearently going to play such an important role in the future – Jaehyun, who didn’t even come close to being popular at school despite his looks, Jaehyun, whose own parents didn’t, couldn't really connect to him emotionally, their biological connection their most expressive bond. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next days are all the same: going to the base‘s training area, training with Johnny and WinWin (who, despite various atempts from Jaehyun, still hasn't warmed up to him), taking showers, idling around in his room and then going to bed after eating (food is delivered at 7am and 5pm sharp at his door, and he was so astonished the first time it happened, he nearly called back the person who brought it in, thinking it was a mistake and not meant for him). 

There aren't any snacks inbetween, or after dinner, but he can hardly complain when he gets impressive sized meals which away look like they should belong in some high fashioned restaurant, rather than an Underground organization.

Training takes up most of his time, and when he is done surviving everything Johnny throws at him, he visits the small libary WinWin mentioned in one of the only two sentences he spoke to him during their first days.

  
The damn bastard probably took pity on him, seeing him writhing in his own sweat on the foor. It is more like a storage room filled with old, dusty books than a real libary, but Jaehyun values its

content over the aesthetics. Most of the books are handwritten (now that he thinks about it, he comes to the conclusion that it’s more appropiate to call them journals), the handwriting being the cleanest he’d ever seen in his life, and he spends the rest of his evenings reading through different kinds of writen down Alphas and Auras, simple, but beautifully sketches adding into the personal experience.

Although the books don‘t offer him much of an explanation about how all of this works, it's still interesting to read about the Alphas noted in the book and what various forms they appearently could take on.

At the end of his first week, when Jaehyun can finally complete the warm up session with Johnny without feeling like being on the brink of death (he prides himself in being able to stand at all after all of that), thoughts of Taeyong begin to pester his mind. Even now, Journal in his hands, information about some kind of assassin Alpha blurring together behind closed eyes, his mind drifting off, somewhere deep inside of him, he is itching to see, talk, feel Taeyong. Cross out the last verb since it made him sound like a desperate pervert.

It unnerves him, how much power the other man already has over him although he hardly knows anything about him. Especially when he seems to know so much about Jaehyun himself, but in Exchange, he barely got any content or Information.

It worsens whenever Ten joins their training sessions, Johnny’s eyes lighting up like lightbulbs whenever he spots the feline-esque form of the smaller male.

He knows something is going on between them, stolen glances and touches here and there so often Jaehyun feels like he’s stealing Johnny away from Ten when they’re training, and also witnessing

something private he’s not ready to see yet. 

He likes Johnny and his open, welcoming nature, but he’s not ready to call him a friend yet, much less ready to watch him and Ten shoving their tongues in each other‘s mouths whenever they think Jaehyun is distracted enough not to notice. It’s honestly kind of digusting, but at the same time he can’t help but feel like he’s also missing something – particulary in a form of a certain, white haired man, but he tries to bury these budding urges beneath memories of intense workouts and handwritten journals.

  
It’s easy for him to fall into a rythm, and it helps that no one tries to add more explanations to his understanding of the strange world he has stumbled into. He can concentrate on digesting the already  
present information passively while focusing on more physical excercises, making the task of slowly adapting to the whole situation easier.

 

 

  
Around the beginning of May, Johnny announces it’s the beginning of his third week. Mildly suprised by the time that has already passed, Jaehyun listens while the other Alpha speaks about a change in  
schedule.

  
“Tomorrow you’re going to visit one of our other bases. Your progress is good, just as I expected, and Boss thinks it’s time for you to start learning more about our organisation.” Jaehyun has to supress a pained groan when Johnny nudges his feet further apart, WinWin apparently absent today, leaving Johnny to replace him.

  
He’s glad that he doesn’t have to feel WinWin’s cold eyes boring into his skull all the time, but also can’t help but miss the strict, but careful chinese instructor when Johnny pushes him into another position too quickly. 

  
“Where is this base?,” he manages to press out between clenched teeth. Johnny, sensing his discomfort that's beyond the limit where it was acceptable, applies less force. The other man rewards him with a reliefed groan, finally feeling his muscles again. 

  
It reminds him that he hasn‘t even asked about their current location yet. He doesn’t know wether they are underground or above ground, although it does feel like he’s in a place shielded from the rest of the world.

  
“It’s actually near your old home. I could tell you what exactly the base looks like, but that would spoil all the fun.” The shithead has the audacity to wink at that.

It’s strange, hearing the world old and home in the same sentence, but weirdly enough it doesn’t strike Jaehyun as too uncomfortable or saddening. Johnny takes his silence as mute consent. “You’re skipping training tomorrow in favor of going there. Be ready at 10am, Boss absolutely loathes tardiness.” He almost mentions he doesn't posses a single clock or watch in his room of on him, but his inner clock works well enough to wake up way before 10am, so he chooses not to comment. 

Jaehuny’s stomach flips a bit. Does this mean he’s going to see Taeyong again? He scowls, mentally scolding himself for thinking that way. It was just natural interest in the other, and no one could blame him finding the mysterious leader intriguing. Yes, he totally convienced his mind with that.

The brunette tries to ignore the budding excitment in his limbs for the incoming day, pouring the extra energy into his workout sessions. If Johnny notices, he doesn’t comment on it, something which Jaehyun is thankful for. The last thing he needs right now is a person confronting him about his strange relationship to their boss. 

But when he opens the door the next morning after having breakfast (some crunchy, ridiciously colourful cereal this time, different from what he usually gets and he almost, _almost_ feels spoiled)

and sees Taeynog, standing at his door like he just walked straight out of a photo shoot, he can’t help but feel a little delighted, a small part of him even satisfied, content. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at this rate i'll forget the previous contents of my chapters lmao , so if you detect logical errors storywise or plot holes, please point them out. kudos and comments are appreciated.
> 
>  
> 
> also, someday i'll add creative chapter names. someday. in the future.


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